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ActionAid runs 44 regional offices – including  Nairobi, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro – with London and Johannesburg at the centre of their operations. This wide geographical spread means that communication and connectivity are vital to ensure the effective running of the organisation.

“It’s crucial that our network of fund-raisers, field workers and administrative staff are able to operate intelligently and intuitively,” said Mark Patterson, ActionAid’s Head of IS. “However, we’re always incredibly careful with how we spend money and were therefore cautious before jumping into a new system. The solution needed to be highly effective, meet all our demands and incur as little expense as possible.”

ActionAid required a way of linking offices with similar technology. An improvement was needed in the way the offices communicated, and in the way field operatives contacted their local branch. All this had to be implemented without causing processional delays or miscommunication and also had to drive down the high call expenditure of the organisation.

As Mitel products were already acting as a telecommunications gateway, Alternative saw that a migration to a full Mitel deployment would make economic and technological sense.

Following a comprehensive assessment of the technical requirements, aligned against the compliance requirements of a not-for-profit organisation, Alternative recommended the Mitel IP Communications solution – including the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP), the Mitel Teleworker Solution and the Mitel Quick Conference. The pre-existing Siemens PBXs in London and Chard were replaced with the Mitel 3300 ICP, with 180 users in London and 50 in Chard, Somerset. In Nairobi, 40 users were installed via an IP link to London.

The ActionAid office in London also implemented the Mitel Teleworker solutions for 10 global users and a Mitel conference bridging solution which was deployed across the network for further cost reduction. By deploying such solutions, ActionAid was able to connect employees seamlessly and cost-effectively, wherever they were – be it at HQ or away in the field.

“In the six months since the deployment, at least £50,000 has already been returned on the investment, a highly significant sum which is now able to be ploughed back into the essential work ActionAid does in helping poverty worldwide. A large amount of the saving has been from major savings on conference calls,” said Mark Patterson.

Aside from the financial saving, the technology has helped reduce the latency of ActionAid’s activities, with the solutions allowing networks with differing technical capabilities operate seamlessly. This was particularly prevalent in Ghana, where the slow connection often meant poor line quality and miscommunication, but now regular calls to Johannesburg and London are quick to connect and audibly better in quality, improving communications between the remote volunteers and head office.